New York Metropolis’s prime transportation official on Tuesday urged state lawmakers to go a invoice decreasing the state’s DWI limit to .05, saying the state has traditionally been too gradual to act on drunken driving legal guidelines.
Ydanis Rodriguez, commissioner of the town Division of Transportation, reiterated Mayor Eric Adams’ assist of the measure throughout a information convention on the state Capitol, which was held by the invoice’s sponsors and attended by victims of drunken driving and their relations. The push to lower the state’s DWI limit comes as New York Metropolis noticed a spike in fatalities from alcohol-related site visitors crashes in 2021, when 42 folks died.
That was up from the prior three-year common of 27 per yr, in accordance to the town. Statewide, about 30% of deadly motorcar crashes are alcohol-related, in accordance to New York State Police.
“This is not about going after anyone that wants to have a drink,” Rodriguez stated. “If you have a drink, if you want to have a drink, get an Uber, get a taxi, but please don’t drink and drive.”
Presently, a driver might be charged with DWI in New York state in the event that they’re working a motorcar with a blood-alcohol focus of at the least .08 grams of alcohol per decileter of blood, or .04 for the driving force of a industrial automobile. A primary offense triggers a compulsory license suspension of at the least six months. Anybody who registers a .05 via .07 might be charged with driving whereas skill impaired by alcohol, a lesser cost that carries a license suspension of at the least 90 days.
There is a vary of penalties for these discovered to be driving whereas intoxicated. Drivers who register a BAC of .18 or larger can face an aggravated DWI cost, which carries a max jail sentence of 1 yr. Repeat offenders can face seven years in jail.
Below the invoice in Albany, the DWI regulation would kick in at .05, which might match a suggestion from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board. The NTSB first threw its assist behind such a limit in 2013, and up to now just one state — Utah — has carried out it.
The state measure is sponsored by Queens Sen. John Liu and Brooklyn Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, each Democrats. It has been kicked round Albany in some type since 2013, when the NTSB first threw its assist behind a .05 limit.
Liu stated he hopes Utah’s expertise, which confirmed a drop in alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes within the yr after its regulation took impact on the finish of 2018, is sufficient to persuade lawmakers to approve it this yr.
“The reality is it didn’t [pass in prior years], and I’m not going to harp on it,” Liu stated. “The harsh reality is that we have seen more and more and more deaths from drunken driving, and that trend is upward. But we have also seen now that it has worked in the state of Utah where the trend is downward.”